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Father’s Day

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Doctor WhoRose persuades the Doctor to take her back to 1987 to witness her father’s death; disturbed by stories that her father died alone, she wants to be with him, even if he doesn’t know who she is. But when the time comes, she’s paralyzed with emotion, and asks the Doctor to take her back again – only now, not only does she only have one more shot at being with her father when he dies, she has to avoid being seen by the versions of herself and the Doctor from mere moments ago. But instead of comforting her father as he dies, this time Rose leaps out and pulls him out of the ray of an oncoming car, saving his life and completely changing the timeline. The changes in time ripple forward, turning the TARDIS into nothing more than an empty Police Box and gradually decimating the population in the surrounding area. Enormous black dragon-like creatures – reapers – appear, consuming people one by one, beginning with the oldest they can find. The Doctor races to the church where Rose’s feuding parents were attending a friend’s wedding, where Rose’s father was supposed to have died, and hustles everyone inside, hoping the old church will be at least a temporary safe haven. Outside the church’s doors, the reapers destroy everything, attempting to rectify the divergent timeline that Rose has created. Only one reminder of the outside world remains – the car that should have hit Rose’s father still circles the church at high speed, its driver still reacting to an unseen obstacle, an obvious clue as to what must happen to set time right.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Paul Cornell
directed by Joe Ahearne
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Robert Barton (Registrar), Julia Joyce (young Rose), Christopher Llewellyn (Stuart), Frank Rozelaar-Green (Sonny), Natalie Jones (Sarah), Eirlys Bellin (Bev), Rhian James (Suzie), Casey Dyer (young Mickey)

Reviews by Philip R. Frey & Earl Green
LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rise Of The Cybermen

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Doctor WhoThe TARDIS plunges out of the time vortex and into a parallel universe, and the Doctor fears the last TARDIS in the universe has made her final flight. Trapped on a parallel version of Earth, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey quickly find out what’s the same (they’re in London) and what’s different (Pete Tyler, Rose’s dad, is still alive, well, and hawking energy drinks from interactive signs on every street corner). Zeppelins fill the sky, carrying the rich and powerful – one of whom, inventor John Lumic, is stricken with a terminal disease. Lumic invites the President of Great Britain to hear a pitch for the newest innovation from his corporation, Cybus Industries. Cybus has already made Lumic unimaginably rich with the sales of its ubiquitous “EarPods,” devices which download news, sports, and even phone calls directly into their wearers’ brais ns. Now Lumic wants to offer “the ultimate upgrade” to the British public – constant connectivity, and virtually indestructible exoskeletal armor, which will virtually transform humanity into a new species – one which Lumic calls Cybermen. The President forbids any further experimentation along these lines, but Lumic has already begun creating an army of Cybermen in secret. The President goes to the lavish Tyler home that night for Jackie Tyler’s birthday party, but thanks to his ability to retrieve information from EarPod wearers, Lumic knows where he’ll be. The Doctor loses control of both of his companions – Mickey goes to see if his grandmother, dead in his reality, is still alive in this world, while Rose insists on finding her family. Curious about the effect that the EarPods are having on humanity, the Doctor tags along with Rose to the Tyler home, but this just means they’re present when Lumic’s army of Cybermen attack, killing the President and anyone else who won’t submit to Lumic’s “voluntary upgrade.”

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith / Ricky Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Don Warrington (The President), Mona Hammond (Rita-Anne), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Antony-Barber (Dr. Kendrick), Adam Shaw (Morris), Andrew Ufondo (Soldier), Duncan Duff (Newsreader), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

The Age Of Steel

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Doctor WhoThe Doctor and his friends are trapped by Lumic’s new breed of Cybermen. Using the last remaining power source from the TARDIS, the Doctor immobilizes the Cybermen with an energy beam, and the survivors of the Cyberman attack on the Tyler mansion are now on the run. Ricky, the alternate universe’s battle-hardened version of Mickey, is killed by Cybermen while trying to escape. Pete and Rose try to infiltrate the Cyber-factory, using fake EarPods as a disguise, to find this universe’s Jackie, only to discover that she has already been converted into a Cyberman. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore, a resistance fighter from Ricky’s operation, discover an army of dormant Cybermen hidden beneath London. Mickey forms an uneasy alliance with Ricky’s friend Jake to storm Lumic’s zeppelin and try to find the controls Lumic uses to guide the Cybermen. Lumic, however, is no long in control – his enfeebled body is scheduled for an “upgrade” by the Cybermen, whether he wishes to remain human or not – and when he is in control, he is no longer Lumic. The Doctor still sees an opportunity to thwart the Cyberman invasion and return the TARDIS to its own universe, but not everyone who came with him will be making the return trip.

Download this episodewritten by Tom MacRae
with thanks to Marc Platt
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber voice)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Doomsday

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Doctor WhoJust as the Cybermen flash into existence all over the Earth, a new threat erupts from the voidship – a group of Daleks, known to the Doctor as a particularly dangerous bunch called the Cult of Skaro, emerge with an unknown device of Time Lord origin called the Genesis Ark. The Daleks are fiercely protective of the Ark, but despite its origins, the Doctor has no idea what it is. The Cybermen aren’t the only visitors from a parallel world: Mickey Smith, Pete Tyler and the soldiers of an anti-Cyberman resistance force have tracked their prey to this world, but now find themselves outgunned as the Daleks and Cybermen launch a full-scale war against each other, with the human race trapped in the middle and Torchwood powerless to fight back. Worse yet, the Genesis Ark is activated and reveals its Time Lord nature: bigger inside than out, it is a prison for millions of Daleks captured during the Time War, who join the fight that’s laying waste to the entire Earth. The Doctor works out a plan to send both of the alien armies back into the void. But even if he can save the world, this time he may not be able to save Rose – and even if her newly (if awkwardly) reunited family saves her, her TARDIS traveling days are numbered.

Download this episodewritten by Russell T. Davies
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Murray Gold

Guest Cast: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake Simmonds), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Raji James (Dr. Rajesh Singh), Paul Kasey (Cyberleader), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voices / Cyber voices), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek operator), Stuart Crossman (Dalek operator), Anthony Spargo (Dalek operator), Dan Barratt (Dalek operator), David Hankinson (Dalek operator), Catherine Tate (the Bride)

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Episode 1

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Survivors (1970s series)A routine day in Abby Grant’s cozy world starts to unravel slowly. Her son is away with friends as news of an unprecedented virulent flu outbreak grips the UK. As news – and evidence – of the spreading flu worsens, some people grow panicked while others sink into their own oblivion. Abby falls ill and her husband desperately tries to nurse her back to health while the medical and emergency services are overwhelmed. Convicted killer Tom Price sees the spreading sickness as an opportunity to shorten his 20+ year sentence, while millionaire playboy Al Sadiq ignores the news as best he can…until he wakes up in his penthouse, his latest conquest having died of the virus overnight. The virus isn’t limited to England, and soon modern conveniences are a thing of the past. Power stations and other critical services are disrupted because the people manning them have died. Overnight, the human race is reduced to foraging for its survival.

It’s into this world that Abby awakens three days after she falls ill. Her husband has died in that time, as has everyone in her neighborhood. With phone service gone, she has no way to check on her son, and so she sets out to find him. Along the way, she runs into Greg Preston, who seems to have very clear ideas on what he’ll have to do to survive, and has stocked up on fuel, food and other necessities. They soon encounter more survivors, including a disheartened doctor named Anya Raczynski, and the unlikely pair of Al Sadiq and an 11-year-old orphan, Najid. Tom Price, having murdered his last surviving jailer to escape, is also a survivor – though no one yet knows what he is capable of.

written by Adrian Hodges
based on the novel by Terry Nation
directed by John Alexander
music by Edmund Butt

Cast: Julie Graham (Abby Grant), Shaun Dingwall (David Grant), Joanne Rowden (Linda Pope), Matt Lanigan (Joe Pope), Freema Agyeman (Jenny Walsh), Amber Herod (Tina Styles), Guy Hargreaves (Mr. Styles), Christine Anderson (Marion Sturges), Max Beesley (Tom Price), Tim Dantay (Gary Wilson), Joe Jacobs (Tony Coyne), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Samantha Willis), Jamie Belman (Mark Carter), Flo Wilson (Helen Crawley), Trevor Dwyer-Lynch (Driver at petrol station), Phillip Rhys (Aalim “Al” Sadiq), Sophia Di Martino (Simone), Bryony Afferson (Patricia Kelly), Zoe Tapper (Anya Raczynski), Hazel Cadman (Hospital Receptionist), Ian Champion (Journalist 1), Sagar Arya (Journalist 2), Tom Lloyd-Roberts (Sir Brian Tilston), Geoffrey Kirkness (General Mike Stone), Rohit Gokani (Najid’s Father), Chahak Patel (Najid Harif), Francis Magee (Callum Brown), Robert Boulter (Neil), Sophie McShera (Cathy), Paterson Joseph (Greg Preston), Jimmy Allen (Man at petrol station), Nicholas Gleaves (Whitaker), Ronny Jhutti (Sami Masood)

Notes: Though it’s the equivalent of The Fourth Horseman, the first episode of the original Survivors series, this untitled pilot of the new series subtracts and adds numerous characters and changes many of the details in the name of modernizing the story. Oddly, the writers’ credit for the pilot only credits Survivors creator Terry Nation for his novel, which was in fact a novelization of the original series; as such, writer and executive producer Adrian Hodges is credited as the show’s creator. Both Shaun Dingwall and Freema Agyeman had recently appeared in Doctor Who, and much was made of their appearances in Survivors, though neither of their characters survive this episode; Paterson Joseph – who had appeared in the first season finale of the new Doctor Who – was also a hot topic as Survivors premiered, as many considered him a likely contender for the role of the Doctor, which David Tennant had recently announced he would be vacating. Another Doctor Who universe veteran prominent in the first season is Nikki Amuka-Bird, who also appeared in the second season of Torchwood.

LogBook entry by Earl Green